Tell us about your educational and professional path.
I never planned on going to college. My father, a Mexican immigrant, never finished middle school. My Japanese American mother went to a vocational school that left her in a sea of debt. It was really by chance that I enrolled in my local community college in Southern California. Even though I was interested in the courses I was taking, I struggled for a few semesters until I finally figured out how to pass classes and make steps toward a degree. I eventually transferred to San Francisco State to major in English; I wanted to be either a writer or an editor, and make a career out of writing and reading books. After graduating I moved to Boulder, Colorado to complete an MFA in Creative Writing & Poetics at Naropa University. I started teaching, LOVED IT, and eventually revised my career goals: I wanted to be a teacher because it was, to me, a career that allowed me to be both a writer and an editor, with the added bonus of being able to forge meaningful connections with students and others in my community. After Naropa I returned to California where I received a PhD in English from UC Riverside, where I taught for a handful of years. I also taught at a number of other schools in the Inland Empire including the University of Redlands, Pomona College, and Moreno Valley College. Along the way I also published my own critical and creative pieces in outlets such as Jacket2, The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism, The Southern Humanities Review, and others. My first full-length collection of poetry, How to Know You’re Dreaming When You’re Dreaming, Lesson One, won the Hilary Gravendyk Award and is forthcoming this year. I have received fellowships from LAMBDA and Fear-No Lit, and I am currently at work on two book projects.

What are you most passionate about professionally?
I am passionate about reading student writing. I am infinitely interested in the minds of my students, and how their views and life experiences translate into the written word.

What most excites you about your work with and contribution to APASS?
Normally, as teachers we witness students come and go every semester. We build whatever community, and impart whatever skills, we can within the limited time that we have together. What I love about APASS is that I get to be with students for an entire school year. This deepens and enriches the classroom experience—the learning curve that students experience when they enter a new classroom (and learn a new professor’s policies, style, expectations, etc.) is flattened; also, the line of learning is unbroken—we are able to have rich conversations that build upon a year’s worth of content, writing, and thinking. And, most importantly, students in the APASS program are able to forge meaningful relationships amongst their peers. Community, especially after the COVID pandemic, is so important. Through participating in APASS they’re able to tap into a community populated with other AAPI students (and teachers!) to help support them through whatever their educational goals may be